Annie Shan Chronicles: Book 1
by cerberus fiveofthree
Summary: Annie starts to lose her mind after Darren's death and in her madness believes he is still alive. Of course, this isn't as mad as it seems. Chapter 6 Uploaded 2006
1. Grieving

The Chronicles of Annie Shan  
Chapter 1 Story 1  
  
'The lid was placed on the coffin and screwed onto place. He was then lifted slowly off the table and led out to the black hearse. The coffin was driven slowly to the church for the funeral speeches. Afterwards the ebony coffin was carried out to the ivy-covered graveyard where we had to listen to the priest's speech over the sobs and moans of all the mourners.  
It was then that they buried my brother. But he couldn't have died. He just couldn't have...'  
  
At the wake I wondered around in a daze, I couldn't, I wouldn't believe he was gone, nor could I believe that it was the end and I would never see him again. As I made my way through the mourning crowds I felt it all sink in, this wasn't supposed to happen not to me, this sort of stuff happened in books and in films or at least to other people not to me Annie Shan, it made me feel weak and vulnerable.  
After that horrible and fateful day I was told that the grieving would get better with time, but for every day that passed I couldn't feel it getting any better, if anything it was getting worse. At the start of each day I was able to kid myself that it was all normal and Darren was just locked in his room, but the slightest reminder of him, like one of the many bereavement cards in the living room sent me plunging into despair. Every day after the accident I felt a deep, dark and frightening feeling in the bottom of my stomach getting worse by the hour that I couldn't shake off, it was a feeling that even if I told myself it was just the mourning for Darren it wouldn't leave me alone.  
Every day I thought of Darren lying in that dark, damp and disgusting pit in the ground and I realised why everyone had a morbid fear of death, I couldn't imagine what it must be like to be buried alive so deep that no one could hear you, no way of escape and no sharp objects to make the best of a bad job. These feelings about him partly led me to never give up hope on him and to always believe he was alive the other reason was I could never quite believe he was dead.  
My life got gradually back to normal with every week that passed and I started to block out my feelings and get on with my school work which had sharply dropped from its high quality to a very poor quality since we found Darren lying on the drive outside the house but as I started to forget, my work gradually got back to its normal high standard which pleased my mum and dad enormously as they thought I was finally coming to terms with Darren's death and I guess I was, but that was until I remembered...  
The Spider...  
  
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	2. Could it be?

'It has been a couple of months since Darren's Accident and I feel that I am finally coming to terms with his death. Life still isn't back to normal as Mum still gets upset and runs away, which makes it harder because I think she is bottling it all up like I was. She will never admit that she is crying or thinking about Darren which makes it harder for me and Dad to cope because we cannot rely on her to do anything on time, in case she runs off into the toilets to cry.'  
  
It was a Monday morning and we were just leaving for school, both Mum and Dad were taking me which was unusual but they told me they were going to the grave yard so I didn't pry any further in case I upset Mum. They dropped me of at School and left quickly, I walked into School to see Beth and Irene who were my two best Friends. Beth was Steve's half-sister who lived with her dad and her step-mum. Steve didn't like her as he blamed her for his Dad ignoring him.  
I just got on with my day, gradually getting through the dreaded lessons like Maths and looking forward to subjects like Art, which was last in the afternoon. It seemed like an age but eventually I got past the dreaded lessons and Art started. About ten minutes into Art the secretary walked in and gave a note to the teacher, the teacher nodded and said "Annie can you go with Mrs Roberts please" I said ok and I left. As we were walking Mrs Roberts gave me a packet of tissues and guided me into the headmistresses office and then she left. Inside the headmistress's office I saw a medic and the headmistress, the headmistress said, "I'm sorry Annie ... it is ..." and then the medic said "It is your parents Annie they are ... Dead"  
I ran out of the office crying, I had no intention of running away but it just happened, I kept meaning to stop but I didn't, after what must have been several hours I stopped and looked around. I had no idea where I was, I had no idea what to do, I couldn't go back now I couldn't stand being told off and I had no where to go.  
I decided to keep walking when I saw the leaflet!  
  
Cirque Du Freak  
  
For one week only- Cirque du Freak!!  
See:  
Sive and Seersa – The twisting Twins  
The Snake Boy! The Wolf Man! Gertha Teeth!  
Larten Crepsley, Mr Shan and their amazing performing spider.  
Alexander Ribs! The bearded lady! Hans Hands!  
Rhamus Twobellies – Worlds Fattest man!  
  
I kept reading it over and over again "MR SHAN" could it be, I felt I had to find out but how, I had no idea but I felt I had to do something. Then it struck me Steve he went to the Cirque Du Freak with Darren he might know! I went around to Steve's. I knew he would be at home, since Darren's death he had barely been at school. When I got there he let me in and welcomed me strangely, which made me nervous, I showed him the leaflet and he tried to snatch it but I whipped it away fast and asked him to help me. He suggested that he could help me if I would help him and he explained that he would show me how to find Darren if I would then take Darren to him. I decided to ignore him and left intent on finding Darren, I left and went to the address on the leaflet but when I got there I realised that it was advertised for last week and that I had missed it. My only hope was a tramp who explained to me that they had left to Nottingham five days ago, I left intent on finding this elusive Cirque du Freak but I guessed it would be harder than I thought and it would be a long road to finding Darren and I hoped that it wasn't a wild goose chase. 


	3. The Joy and the Pain

'I just hope that this is worth it.'

I arrived in Nottingham three days later, hoping that the show lasted two weeks. The long trip to Nottingham had been a tiring and painful one. It had been three days of sleeping on park benches, and in passenger side car seats if I was lucky. With all the countless thumbed down rides and several "free" bus rides.

My final hitchhiked ride was with a creepy guy who told me his name was "Desmond". He was quite short but otherwise there was nothing discernable about his looks, although his voice sounded strangely mystical.

When we got to Nottingham city centre I asked him to let me out at the main hall but instead he continued driving on and on and on until I saw signposts telling me we were approaching the motorway, I tried to open the door, more to spook him into stopping than to jump out but as I slowly reached for the handle I saw the latch shoot down, when I looked up I saw him removing his hand from the door.

I decided to sit there quietly until some other bright idea came into my head, none did and so I sat there quietly for a long time until finally we stopped. Desmond turned round to face me and told me in a harsh but calm voice to get out of the car. I did as he said and started walking away from the car. When I had walked about 5 metres away from the car Desmond shouted:

"Annie, ... Embrace your destiny."

I then decided that this was definitely very creepy and started walking faster which before long turned into a full speed sprint away from the car.

I ran away as fast as I could from the creepy car, I ran for what seemed like an age until I finally stopped and collapsed to the ground panting and grasping for breath, when I finally stopped wheezing and panting I looked up. What I saw half made me want to cry out with joy half made me want to cry out with pain and disgust.

It was Darren. He was ghostly and thin. A man was talking to him. Annie looked at him confusedly. He was wearing a scout uniform. Darren suddenly leapt back and a flash of red descended on the poor man. There was a brief struggle and the man lay motionless on the floor. Then Darren and the red creature moved in, and then the figure in red spoke.

"Imagine a man his age wearing a Scout's uniform." With that I turned and ran as far and fast as I could.


	4. Back to Square One

'Running away from things, I seem to be doing it lot of that lately'

Again I found myself running away, but this time I felt split, half of me wanted to go back and talk to Darren but the other half of me was worried that if I did then he might not recognise me. I realised that I didn't know what or who Darren was anymore and that scared me. I had come so far in search of him. I had nowhere else to go, since leaving home I have burned all my bridges and if I decided to go home I would have to face going into foster care. For these reasons I became determined to make the most of the chance I had to find Darren.

I had no idea where I was, it was in the middle of the night and I was walking around the back alleys of Nottingham, scared and alone. The street lights were my only comfort and even they where either broken or fading out.

I tried and tried to come up with a sensible idea to get me out of this horrible mess wishing more and more that I had confronted Darren when I saw him, but no ideas came to mind although while I was thinking, I remembered something that the creepy car driver had said to me: 'Embrace your destiny', this meant nothing to me, but it got me thinking about what destiny really was and how it applied to me, was it just a word used by people to describe occurrences that they didn't understand? Or was it something that really exists? And everybody has a pre-set course to follow in life? Does this make our thoughts our own?

I spent a long time thinking about this but eventually decided on the latter explanation because if everything was already pre-set it meant that if finding Darren was really my destiny, then I could just walk on and on and eventually find him. This wasn't really much comfort because I was ready to collapse with exhaustion anyway and destiny or not I wasn't going to be able to cope much longer. Despite this I decided I would continue on in the hope of ... well in the hope of being able to continue further and find Darren eventually. This however was not the case and several minutes later I collapsed at the side of the road.

When I woke up everything was hazy, I was awake long enough to have some liquid poured down my throat which was painfully sore, and what tasted like a high energy food bar shoved in to my mouth, after I had eaten it I collapsed straight back down to the pillow and fell asleep again. This was a regular routine for what seemed like an eternity until I was awake long enough for my vision to come back in to focus and for me to be able to ask my captures or rescuers? A few questions.

'Where am I?'

'What happened?'

'Who are you?'

'What is the date?'

All of my questions were answered and from them I managed to gain the following information, I was at a house on the outskirts of Nottingham, the occupants, devout Christians, had picked me up on the road side after I had fainted, the worst news was however that it had been two weeks since I collapsed and the Cirque would be long gone and the people who picked me up and had done everything in my best interests up until now, wanted to ring my parents and tell them where I was.

Sure enough the day after I had woken up fully the questions about my parents just kept coming at me.

'We are sure they will be worried' they said 'They will want to know that you are safe' and the main question 'where do you live?'

I decided that the phrase 'I can't remember' could only be a very temporary solution and they wouldn't go on asking eventually resorting to calling a doctor around to assess my apparent amnesia. My plan was very simple, escape. But when and how weren't so simple to answer.

The answer came to me on Sunday morning, they were getting ready to go to church and as far as I could tell they weren't planning on taking me with them so I kept my eyes shut and pretended that I was asleep, my deception worked and they left for church nice and early in the morning, giving me a chance to have a nice lie in and to get myself together ready for my escape, an hour later I scribbled a thank you note and I was walking out the door ready to go off in search of Darren once more but if I thought that finding Darren when I first set off to find him almost three weeks ago was going to be hard, this was going to be a whole lot harder.

It didn't take me long to realise that if I was to ever going to speak to Darren again that I was going to have to enlist the help of those who I would rather not have to ask for help and I was going to have to probe into every last detail of Darren's death starting with... Steve Leonard.


	5. Revelations

But what if he is not the Darren I know and love?

The same body yes, but his mind and soul could be warped with evil beyond comprehension.

I myself feel at the brink of insanity.

I have no-one.

No true family. The ones I loved are dead, stolen from me.

Death stalks me, lashing out but missing, his scythe penetrating the people who love me most, who protect me.

I am home, in my town, but no place is a home for me any longer.

The edge of reason escapes my grasp constantly.

I need an explanation, a scapegoat if you will, and I feel only one person holds the true answer.

Steve. Steve Leonard.

I arrived at Steve's house early in the morning and knocked on the door. Steve opened it and gasped when he saw me.

"Annie? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Thanks for the effusive welcome."

"Sorry... It's just last thing I heard you were missing."

"Cut the wishy-washy crap. The Spider, The Cirque du Freak, tell me everything. Now."

Steve had told me everything. Larten Crepsley A.K.A. Vur Horston was a Vampire. I laughed long and hard. Steve's face had grown very red and he looked quite angry, but he calmed himself and raised his hands in a gentle surrender sign. I saw ten scars on his fingertips but didn't bother to enquire.

"So Darren has followed this Crepsley guy and is training to be a ‚Vampire'?" I asked mockingly.

"Yes. He cheated me out of the position." Steve said with a scowl on his face.

Something came to my attention.

"Where's your Mum?"

"What? Oh. She's... asleep."

"OK. I've gotta go."

"Where exactly?"

"I'm gonna hit the road again. And I have something else to do too."

"You wanna find Crepsley?"

"Well not now. But soon yeah."

Steve took a book off the shelf and opened it to a page. He turned to a photocopier in the corner and quickly made a copy.

"Here."

"Oh, thanks."

There was a picture of a tall man. He had a long scar running down his face. The Eiffel tower was behind him as he stood with a pretty woman in a long dress.

"I gotta go. See you later."

"OK." He said. "Bye."

I walked swiftly across the layer of fallen leaves.

The sombre mood seemed to sharpen my senses. It was night-time. I laughed a mirthless, cold laugh. The stuff of horror movies. But I was scared no longer. I looked over the graves.

The Shans 

_Husband, Wife and Son_

_Reunited in Heaven_

I was not at the funeral. I had run away, too busy thinking of Darren and my obsession to worry about the death of my parents. I feel as if I missed my chance to grieve. I had not cried for them. Not once.

A single snowflake fell lazily from the sky, and fluttered onto the ground, then disappeared.

"The first snow of winter." A voice said from behind me.

I whirled around. It was a very short man. He wore a yellow suit and wellington boots.

"Well you're certainly prepared." I said, pointing at his boots.

He ignored the jibe.

"You know," he began, "people are very like snowflakes."

I can't deny I was intrigued. "Go on."

"Each one is an individual. Each choses it's own path to fall to the ground. They spiral around rather aimlessly. Sometimes they are taken before their time." He said, reaching for one in the air and grabbing it inbetween his thumb and forefinger."Then again, the wind may blow them off course, sending them on a detour, or a new destiny that awaits them."

"But snowflakes aren't people." I said bluntly, cutting short his speech.

"Maybe not, but you both have a destiny. The snowflake's destiny is to fall and melt, a human's may be different, but they both still die in the end. Think on that Anna Shan. I leave you to your business."

I looked down at the grave again, by the time I looked up the man was gone. I looked down once more.

A tear slid down my cheek.


	6. On the Road Again

On the road again, a place I could almost call home now, a depressing thought but relevant none the less. I have been looking for Darren for months now and since my initial sighting I haven't seen him. I feel I am getting closer, I must be. I have been following the evasive Cirque Du Freak for at least a couple of months and I can almost sense that Darren is near.

I have thought long and hard about the new Darren and have decided after long deliberations that just knowing that I had someone left in my life would make life slightly more bearable even if he didn't recognise me, or worse, hated me.

I have started to piece the facts together surrounding Darren's death and as much as I hated to think it, I was starting to believe Steve, but some things just didn't make sense. Why would Darren want to become a vampire? Why would he want to leave us? And most of all Why was he chosen instead of Steve? Steve was cruel and mean, and in my view would make a better vampire. It was this thought that made me doubt Darren even more, did I ever actually know him or was he actually cruel and horrible all his life, and just a good actor. This didn't distract me from my cause however; I was determined to talk to Darren regardless, a decision that was going to change my life forever.

I arrived in Birmingham at 2:00am in the morning, as soon as I got out of the kind vicar's car, I saw a leaflet:

Cirque Du Freak

For one week only- Cirque du Freak!  
See:

Sive and Seersa – The twisting Twins

The Snake Boy! The Wolf Man! Gertha Teeth!  
Larten Crepsley, Mr Shan and their amazing performing spider.  
Alexander Ribs! The bearded lady! Hans Hands!

Rhamus Twobellies – Worlds Fattest man!

Hurry ends on the 30th May 2005

My heart skipped a beat, I had found Darren, he was here, but then I read the last line, and realised I had no idea what the date was. It could have been the 30th June for all I knew. I had to find out, I just had to I couldn't cope with not knowing if Darren was here or not. I looked around in a frenzy, what to do? Who to ask? Then I looked around and behind me there was a police car. I thought my dreams had been answered and I ran over to it and started rapidly rapping on the side window, still panting from the excitement.

I asked in a hurried voice "What is the date."

I got a calm and diplomatic response "Why, it is the 29th miss."

I looked at the officer for a second and said "Thank you so much"

I started to run away but before I got very far at all I heard the car door open and somebody run after me, I stopped and looked round and the police officer said "Excuse me, Miss Shan, come with me please."


End file.
